North Creek Crescendo Film and Foil MKP 200VDC – 10% tolerance

North Creek Crescendo Film and Foil MKP 200VDC – 10% tolerance

Technical Specifications (according to manufacturer): “Released in 1996, these capacitors were designed with a lush, rich midrange and romantic but detailed top end; a tonality opposite that of other large film-and-foil capacitors. Proper application of the thick 200 Volt film results in a tonal continuity from the midrange through the treble extremes, and balances the midrange correctly with the upper octaves. The extreme top end of the Crescendo capacitors is soft and very quiet. Although Crescendo Harmonically Balanced™ film-and-foil capacitors were designed to operate un-bypassed in most tweeter circuits, they also benefit from bypassing and cascading with the higher voltage Crescendo bypass capacitors. They also make an excellent bypass cap when paired with most other base caps for high performance midrange circuits, and can be configured in large pure film-and-foil stacks for the ultimate in midrange performance”. Although the tolerance stated is meant to be a poor +/- 10%, I measured all of them and they were (like the ASC polypropylene in oil) all within about 1% the stated capacitance – the worst one measured 10,12mF.

Sound: Well all the above is just sales talk! Okay, they are very good capacitors with good separation of the individual instruments and a nice deep sound stage but the major drawback is they have a sort of “loudness” built-in, like with the Hovland Musicap (of which they remind me of the most) I have a love/hate relationship with them: they don’t mate with all types of tweeters, they don’t make an excellent match for most aluminium and titanium domes. I tried them in the new HATT-MkIII and felt like wanting to increase the L-pad function of the tweeter. If in series with a very nice soft-dome tweeter they seem to bring out more detail than usual from such a tweeter compared to when used with other caps. I had good results with the Seas Excel tweeter used in the Mezzo Proteus but other soft-domes should also benefit the same way. If the tweeter tends to be a little on the bright or clinic side they sound awful. But you do get more detail and a better sound stage compared to if you used an Audyn Cap or Le Clanché. Here’s a good tip: Use them as a bypass cap only; they will clean up a cheap Intertechnik Audyn Cap nicely.

Verdict: 8